Since eventually making his widely anticipated £32.5 million move to Liverpool this summer, many expected life for the Anfield faithful to be greatly improved in light of Chritian Benteke’s arrival at their club. The Belgian international seemingly provides power, pace and goals in the final third – which certainly remains somewhat of a premium in the Premier League nowadays.
However, after experiencing a rather flat start to the new campaign among Brendan Rodgers’ side, certain question marks may well be surrounding the player’s mind now that things haven’t quite worked out as rosy as many previously predicted for Liverpool. So far this term, the Reds have looked somewhat slow, distinctly uncreative and severely lacking when it comes to offering Benteke the service he needs to do the business up-top.
You would have thought a side like Liverpool – with all the money that has been spent at the club on transfers in recent windows – would have had enough about them to avoid such a frustrating outcome this season. As recent performances have displayed however, Brendan Rodgers’ attacking trio have remained almost as disjointed and isolated as the ill-fated likes of Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert proved at Anfield last season.
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So then, whilst the vast majority of the 2015/16 campaign admittedly remains to be decided at this stage in the proceedings, should Liverpool’s Christian Benteke already be regretting his recent move to Merseyside, or are improved fortunes just waiting around the corner for Reds supporters and the Belgian front-man alike?
Well, seeing as Brendan Rodgers remains the most pressured Premier League manager currently operating within the English top-flight at the moment, perhaps the former Aston Villa striker may well have been a tad hasty in deciding to leave Villa Park for Merseyside this summer. On the surface, Benteke has potentially joined a slowly sinking ship without a recognised captain on board to help his side successfully break the top-four this season.
The 24-year-old striker, who was nonetheless coveted by a whole host of other top-flight clubs this summer, seemingly joined the Reds on the pretence that Champions League football would soon on the horizon at Anfield. As Brendan Rodgers subsequently saw fit to pair Benteke up with the newly acquired Roberto Firmino – and hero of the 2014/15 campaign, Philippe Coutinho – all the cards were apparently in place for Liverpool to thrive in front of goal this term.
However, thanks partially to a lack of managerial quality from Rodgers himself, such a fairy-tale-like outcome simply hasn’t taken place for the Reds so far in 2015/16. For one reason or another, Liverpool still look short of scoring goals – and as Daniel Sturridge is yet to fully implement himself back within the first team set-up at Anfield – the immediate future doesn’t exactly look too promising for the Reds, as things currently stand.
Yet even though Liverpool are yet to truly show the full potential seemingly on offer from their expensively assembled squad this season, Christian Benteke simply has to hang in there now that his big decision to move to Merseyside has already been made.
If the former Villa Park favourite is struggling to reach a meaningful partnership with the likes of Firmino and Coutinho, then more work on the training ground simply has to be done among Liverpool’s current striking options. Each of the aforementioned players certainly possess the potential to be great together in the Premier League, so perhaps with a few more games collectively under their belts, the Anfield faithful will finally start seeing some improved results from their supposedly exciting front-men.
After all, Christian Benteke is a player who can seemingly score out of nowhere – that much was clearly obvious against Manchester United last time out. Liverpool shelled out just over £30 million on the Belgian striker this summer for a reason. He’s the man who has been tasked with doing the business in front of goal for his side this term – and even if his service remains somewhat lacking across the next few domestic fixtures – Benteke will still likely find goals from somewhere.
As the 24-year-old centre-forward undoubtedly provides an update on the likes of Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert for the Anfield faithful this season, there is no reason why the newly acquired striker won’t discover a rich vein of form sooner or later in Liverpool colours. It just seems inevitable more than anything else.
Ultimately then, although Liverpool’s current predicament up-top may need ironing out somewhat between matches, the long-term future nonetheless remains positive for the Reds with Christian Benteke solidly on board. He is simply a natural born goal-scorer who will get the job done one way or another – even if several other first team members of Rodgers’ starting XI remain startlingly sub-standard.
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